# Looking for a new web browser.



## Yarnchu (Aug 18, 2010)

Alright, I'm just utterly pissed at Microsoft. Just...read this rant(lotta cursing cause I was mad when I typed that) to understand why.

I decided to keep on truckin' with IE 8 anyways. I figured why not, at least I killed off that damn "Operation Aborted" error I had....

Turns out, _I didn't_.

Right now, I have my eyes set on either Fire Fox or Chrome. If any of you guys use these browsers, I want to know a few things:

1)How user friendly is it?
2)Is it fast(say, faster than IE)?
3)What pages can it NOT load? I'd like to be able to surf the web, you know.
4)What are its specific advantages and drawbacks?
5)Does it have tabs?(mainly applies to Chrome, cause I know FF does)

Search bars and the like are not an issue for me, cause I just keep Google as my homepage for quick access(and cause its been my home page for so long that it would be awkward switching to something else).


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## Aisling (Aug 18, 2010)

Maybe I should leave this to the more versed people, but I don't have any problems with Firefox so I can vouch for that. It's decently fast (but I have a fast connection anyway, or at least I'm supposed to, so your mileage may vary on that idk), and the pages it doesn't load are usually ones made just for IE or something (I know a few sections of Nexon's site are like this, but no others off the top of my head), which is somewhat rare in this age of better-than-IE-browsers-everywhere. I don't know what all Chrome in the way of addons has but Firefox also has cute skins called Personas that are really easy to change around, and of course Adblock Plus. Which is always cool.

If you're used to IE then Firefox would probably be the easiest to transition into; my brother had Chrome and all I can safely tell you is that it's kind of different and I had no idea what I was doing. :B


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## Zora of Termina (Aug 18, 2010)

inb4 link to Mozilla's download page.

But really, you should know what I recommended already, and I'll just say it again here. :l


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## Green (Aug 18, 2010)

firefox is a bitch on stuff with google ads now, though. bulbapedia and hotmail refuse to load for me until i've gone through a few minute's worth of script errors. i've never tried chrome.


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## Yarnchu (Aug 18, 2010)

Zora of Termina said:


> inb4 link to Mozilla's download page.
> 
> But really, you should know what I recommended already, and I'll just say it again here. :l


Seems to be the popular choice so far. I might just end this early and go download the damn thing already.


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## Murkrow (Aug 18, 2010)

As fas as I can tell you shouldn't have any issues loading certain pages so 3) shouldn't be an issue. I'm pretty sure both FF and Chrome are faster than IE, though I haven't tried IE 8 but I assume it's still kinda slow.

Chrome does have tabs. As for disadvantages. I find Firefox can sometimes be a memory hog and Chrome doesn't have support for animated PNGs. And both are pretty user friendly.

I prefer Chrome because I prefer the way it looks and I find it's much faster.


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## Zora of Termina (Aug 18, 2010)

KronoGreen said:


> firefox is a bitch on stuff with google ads now, though. bulbapedia and hotmail refuse to load for me until i've gone through a few minute's worth of script errors. i've never tried chrome.


Really?
'Cause I have to have ads unblocked on certain pages that use Google ads and they've never given me a problem at all.


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## .... (Aug 18, 2010)

KronoGreen said:


> firefox is a bitch on stuff with google ads now, though. bulbapedia and hotmail refuse to load for me until i've gone through a few minute's worth of script errors. i've never tried chrome.


It works fine for me.

Anyway:
Firefox is really user friendly. It has a ton of add-ons and is more customizable.
Chrome is more secure, has tabs, but is a bit more difficult to use. Once you get used to it, it works just fine.
Firefox is a bit faster in my opinion.


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## Green (Aug 18, 2010)

Zora of Termina said:


> Really?
> 'Cause I have to have ads unblocked on certain pages that use Google ads and they've never given me a problem at all.


hotmail started fucking up when they updated. |:


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## Aisling (Aug 18, 2010)

Did Hotmail update just today or something, then? I checked my inbox a day or two ago and it worked fine. I think you have a different problem or something. Hotmail and Bulbapedia always work fine for me.


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## Yarnchu (Aug 18, 2010)

Well, I'm gonna have to update in the morning cause I'm being booted off the computer, but that does give more time for more input. Chrome sounds nice, but I know really little about it and FF sounds far more appealing right now.


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## Adriane (Aug 18, 2010)

Vixie the Ninetales here vouching for Firefox. 

I am not biased at all, nope.

(But seriously, you can't go wrong with either, but Firefox has a longer legacy and a bigger following so it tends to get all the neat trinkets and add-ons first. Plus Chrome's UI is a little wonky for me; I like my programs looking similar.)


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## Diz (Aug 18, 2010)

I find that safari works well. 

It's easy to add bookmarks, and it keeps track of your most favorite pages, as well as tabs.

I didn't know it was possible for a browser to not load pages, but I suppose there are still some fossils that are made to work in IE and IE alone due to bad scripting.

I'm not sure how fast it is, the load time of webpages depend on internet connection speed, and the size of the files your browser has to download to display it. Start up is also one meaning of speed, and I don't think that Safari is anymore taxing than IE.


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## Adriane (Aug 18, 2010)

Safari for Windows is almost like using IE for Mac :\ 

Safari's a better browser by far, but it's still blehApple. And if one does go the closed-source route, Opera is probably the superior choice.


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## Superbird (Aug 18, 2010)

Firefox worked fine for me back when I had a Windows XP. That's highly recommended.


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## Blastoise Fortooate (Aug 18, 2010)

Firefox lets you transfer favorites and cookies and stuff over from IE, which is nice. Plus, as many people have said, it's very customizable and stuff.

AND NOW FOR RECOMMENDED ADDONS

AdBlock Plus pretty much gets rid of every ad that isn't a video preview (ie: no more of those ads on Bulbapedia!)

Google Toolbar

ColorfulTabs generates a color for every new tab that you make.

Lazarus Form Recovery: Ever press refresh accidentally and lose an hour's worth of ranting? Not anymore.

Read It Later is soooo useful because it adds a little button that you can press and then _bang_ it goes in this little folder thing that you can check later. And it saves where you were on the page. :)

Smoothwheel removes the jerky scrolling blah that happens sometimes.


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## Solstice (Aug 18, 2010)

I would suggest Firefox, as it can handle more many tabs than other browsers, and is customizable, going as far as the advanced options, allowing almost complete customization of it, though when you click on the Firefox icon it takes at least minute to load.

If you're looking for instant speed, Google Chrome, and another Version of it called Comodo Dragon, aren't as customizable, but are about as fast as FF, and can handle nearly as much tabs, plus it has easy access to upgrades, instead of automatically updating and making pop-ups like FF saying that a new update is out, so GC and CD are better, but I prefer Comodo. 

If you're looking for pure speed but limited customization, you should get Safari. It can handle a few tabs, and is good in speed.

If you're looking for an alternate for IE, you should get TheWorld Browser,  which is basically the same.

If you want another, you should get Opera, but it is blocked by Windows Firewall sometimes.


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## ultraviolet (Aug 18, 2010)

> firefox is a bitch on stuff with google ads now, though. bulbapedia and  hotmail refuse to load for me until i've gone through a few minute's  worth of script errors. i've never tried chrome.


must be just you, because I access hotmail and bulbapedia all the time?

so yeah recommending firefox, although if you're getting firefox I heartily recommend adblocker plus because it's awesome~ opera is nice too, and faster, I think? I only don't use it because I'm so used to firefox.


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## Yarnchu (Aug 18, 2010)

I'm rather disappointed this is like 10 times more active than my sprite thread. >:|

And thanks for that list of addons, Blastoise! Adblock, form recovery, and smoothwheel sound very useful.


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## Kratos Aurion (Aug 18, 2010)

Firefox does have a larger number of extensions overall, and some of the Fx-unique functions are more what keep me with it these days; I've been having various issues with it of late, though it could also just be my computer and I certainly don't consider it a bad browser by any means. (Also I like the Personas I made out of my own artwork, so. Biased.)

Chrome (and the other Chromium derivatives, e.g. Chromium itself, Dragon, IronWare or w/e, etc.--choose whichever flavor you like, I guess) do actually have a lot of those extensions, though, or extensions with similar capabilities. They have Adblock (Plus), Read it Later, Xmarks and uh quite a few other things I'm forgetting/I only have because they're web-design related so probably not relevant to your interests; the Chromium family can hold its own against Firefox in that department for most of the "basic" extensions these days. Depends on how badly you need fancy shiny things. I also find them all slightly faster. Right now my only _major_ gripe with Chromium et al is the fact that they aren't as easily configurable as Firefox is, and so things like toggling/adjusting certain behaviors, keyboard shortcuts, etc. can be irritating. (And it drives me crazy that Ctrl+I/U/B refuse to work in rich text fields like this one and aarrrgh why won't they fix it.) If they get an about:config, they may actually get me to switch over. Maybe.

I actually really like Opera, but lack of extensions makes me sad. Yeah, yeah, third-party extensions break browsers, blah. I want my Read it Later and I don't want it wasting a chunk of screen real estate as a sidebar, damn you ;-;

You could always download both and try for yourself, then uninstall whichever you don't like, though, couldn't you? Why not experiment instead of taking others' word for it? Your mileage may vary and all that, after all, so...?

EDIT: ohey, Chrome even has Lazarus now, apparently. Which I've been meaning to get for Fx anyway why haven't I done that yet again


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## Evil Link (Aug 18, 2010)

All these posts and only one mention of Opera? That's a shame...

Well, anyway, my vote would got to Opera, since that's what I use after moving from Internet Explorer and Firefox. I like Opera because it's very 'computer-friendly'. It's low on memory, three times less so than Firefox, I think, and it's acclaimed to be the fastest browser available. Both of those are something I need on my 5 year old laptop with just over half a Gigabyte of RAM.

If you're running a a better computer than that, though, Firefox is probably the best bet. The customisation and the add-ons are really great when you find ones that are useful.

Other than that, I can't say I've tried anything else. But, if you're only moving away from Internet Explorer, you'll see an improvement with whatever you pick. Even Safari. xD


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## Yarnchu (Aug 18, 2010)

Well, I just downloaded Firefox, and so far it works great. _And holy crap it tells you if you have spelling mistakes._ I'm about to download some add-ons now.

EDIT: Oh my gosh smooth wheel is just simply fantastic!


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## Adriane (Aug 18, 2010)

Evil Link said:


> All these posts and only one mention of Opera? That's a shame...





Vixie said:


> Safari's a better browser by far, but it's still blehApple. And if one does go the closed-source route, *Opera is probably the superior choice.*





Explosion said:


> *If you want another, you should get Opera*, but it is blocked by Windows Firewall sometimes.





Kratos Aurion said:


> *I actually really like Opera*, but lack of extensions makes me sad. Yeah, yeah, third-party extensions break browsers, blah. I want my Read it Later and I don't want it wasting a chunk of screen real estate as a sidebar, damn you ;-;


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## Yarnchu (Aug 18, 2010)

Smooth Wheel is pretty awesome, and Bulbapedia is actually pretty cool looking, unlike in IE. I guess I'm going to stick to Firefox for now.


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## Tarvos (Aug 18, 2010)

Get Firefox.


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## 1. Luftballon (Aug 18, 2010)

use lynx.


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## Zhorken (Aug 19, 2010)

Why are so many people using Hotmail!  (Also fuck yeah Firefox, etc etc)


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## Evil Link (Aug 19, 2010)

Vixie said:


> *list of Opera users*


Ahaa, fair enough, looks like more than one mention. I'll read closer next time. xD


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## Adriane (Aug 19, 2010)

I don't use Opera. I just think it's pretty good. Main turn-off for me is closed source.

I'd sorta like to try Lynx. Seems like it might be handy to have around.


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## 1. Luftballon (Aug 19, 2010)

(actually, don't. try one of the links variants.)


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## Aisling (Aug 19, 2010)

Zhorken said:


> Why are so many people using Hotmail!  (Also fuck yeah Firefox, etc etc)


Mostly because I have enough friends that still do. I have a YIM and AIM also, and run it all on Trillian. I'm not the type to impose just one IM on anyone who wants to IM me, I'd rather just accommodate.
also when I record LPs with guests I use Windows Live Messenger's webcam + manycam to pull it off.


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## Zhorken (Aug 19, 2010)

Alraune said:


> Mostly because I have enough friends that still do. I have a YIM and AIM also, and run it all on Trillian. I'm not the type to impose just one IM on anyone who wants to IM me, I'd rather just accommodate.


Makes sense, but what does that have to do with what you use for email? o.O


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## Aisling (Aug 19, 2010)

Zhorken said:


> Makes sense, but what does that have to do with what you use for email? o.O


oh derp
Occasionally one of my MSN contacts will send something to that e-mail because it's the only one of mine that they know. I only ever check my hotmail inbox if something like that happens.


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## Flygon1 (Aug 20, 2010)

I would suggest Chromium if you get tired or frustrated with Firefox. It's the open source base which Google Chrome is built upon, and thus is not controlled by the company. I switched to it after Firefox became a complete memory hog, and found it to be a faster, more concise browser.


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## H-land (Aug 21, 2010)

Well, at this point in the thread, all of the big names have already been mentioned, and honestly, when it comes to web browsers, that's likely all you'll want to deal with. Every browser has its quirks and irregularities, and if you're designing a webpage, you won't be able to test it with all of the browsers out there (not personally, unless you're really dedicated and you have way too much free time on your hands), so it's the big ones that're gonna get support. 
As we have already established, Internet Explorer is crap. This should be common knowledge. Still, it's one of the big names on the market these days.
Moving on, most other people use Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. I use Firefox, personally, because I got used to using it before Chrome ever came around, and because some part of me worries about putting so much faith in one internet company. I mean, I trust Google for my RSS and my searching, but I'm not sure I trust it with all that and my browser history.
Really, though, either Chrome or Firefox is a good idea.

Opera is an okay browser, I guess, but I've never used it extensively myself, and it's been so long since I've used it at all, actually, that all of the complaints that I could make are likely outdated now. Still, it just didn't strike my fancy, but it's still usually fairly well supported, and if I couldn't use Firefox or Chrome in a given situation, Opera'd probably be my next choice.

Safari. Safari. I don't do Safari. It's got a neat name that invokes thoughts of adventure, and grand new sights, and wonderful experiences... I don't think I've ever enjoyed using Safari, though. Maybe it's because I hate macs (I need two mouse buttons at all times, if not more! Ctrl+Click is not an acceptable workaround! And keep my keyboard shortcuts where they belong!) and that's mostly where I've used it, but also consider that it was originally designed for macs, and using it on Windows would be less than ideal. I'm not sure it's as widely supported as Opera, anyway.

Lynx? I wouldn't even bother with. I haven't even heard it mentioned in ages, so I'd expect lots of issues with sites displaying improperly and things being unsupported. Konqueror I've heard about a lot more often, but it's still such a small slice of the market that I'd reccomend staying away from it.


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## 1. Luftballon (Aug 21, 2010)

(psst, lynx is a joke answer.)

konquerer is just another gecko shell, iirc, so you won't get anything particularly better than firefox + plugins.


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## Superbird (Aug 21, 2010)

You can buy a two-button mouse and hook it up to a Mac, you know--And it will work, too.


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## goldenquagsire (Aug 21, 2010)

Zhorken said:


> Why are so many people using Hotmail!  (Also fuck yeah Firefox, etc etc)


because it's the first online email account I ever registered and 90% of everything that isn't Super Important Real Life Business or shopping stuff is directed to said account? is there even anything particularly wrong with Hotmail apart from the fact that it's owned by the Great Satan Microsoft?


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## Adriane (Aug 22, 2010)

goldenquagsire said:


> because it's the first online email account I ever registered and 90% of everything that isn't Super Important Real Life Business or shopping stuff is directed to said account? is there even anything particularly wrong with Hotmail apart from the fact that it's owned by the Great Satan Microsoft?


It's pretty much the shittiest free e-mail service.

(EDIT: with a large userbase)


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## goldenquagsire (Aug 22, 2010)

Vixie said:


> It's pretty much the shittiest free e-mail service.
> 
> (EDIT: with a large userbase)


but _why_. what does it do to impede the basic acquisition and reading of emails?


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## Adriane (Aug 22, 2010)

goldenquagsire said:


> but _why_. what does it do to impede the basic acquisition and reading of emails?


Their spam filters are wonky, they have dubious dealings that basically sell your inbox to high-enough bidders, accounts ~magically disappear~ (I've had one do so), more frequent downtime, forwarding is only allowed towards other Microsoft e-mail services (unless this has changed), they keep fucking with the AI (initial Googling suggests most people are unhappy with this), and so forth.

To the "average user", these might be "little things", but it's still pretty clear that GMail or even Yahoo! Mail are superior, more reliable e-mail services.


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## Bluberry Bat (Aug 23, 2010)

Blastoise said:


> Firefox lets you transfer favorites and cookies and stuff over from IE, which is nice. Plus, as many people have said, it's very customizable and stuff.
> 
> AND NOW FOR RECOMMENDED ADDONS
> 
> ...


There's been a google searchbar built into Firefox since like version 2.1 or something, and there's a default option in tools to smooth out scrolling.

On the other hand, don't forget Noscript. Combos with Adblock to rightfully screw over most if not all intrusions. I laugh at your capitalism, google ad syndicate. 

Also, if you're quite into music and tend to listen while browsing recommendation++ for Foxytunes. Works with most media players to plug playback controls right into the footer.

(Gee, I wonder what I recommend browser-wise here~)


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## Blastoise Fortooate (Aug 23, 2010)

> There's been a google searchbar built into Firefox since like version  2.1 or something, and there's a default option in tools to smooth out  scrolling.


Yes but the one I got from the add-on is about seven point three times better. :P And I did not know about the smoothening-thing...

Yeah, tried it out, doesn't work as well as the add-on does.


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## Phantom (Aug 23, 2010)

Personally I am an AOL person. But browser wise I am not too picky, but I will go with the majority and vote for firefox. It's one of the most user-friendly browsers I know, and websites display well on it. Though I like Chrome too. It's very clean, but for me it seems to error a lot, especially on Facebook.


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## Adriane (Aug 23, 2010)

Isn't the AOL browser just an IE wrapper?


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## 1. Luftballon (Aug 23, 2010)

there are a lot of "browsers" that are just an IE shell. IE has actually gotten better over the past, uh, two versions? (I still won't recommend it, but.)


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